USA > Ohio > Coshocton County > Historical collections of Coshocton County, Ohio : > Part 20
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chandising and banking firm, W. K. Johnson & Co. For some years, about 1840, he resided at Walhonding. He represented Coshocton district in the upper house of the Legislature, and was also a member of the lower house in Congress. He was a member of the State Constitutional Convention 1850-51. His health was not firm for some years before he died, and on this and other accounts he was not so much engaged with public affairs in his later years as in earlier ones. With limited education, his industry and native shrewdness and caution enabled him to achieve a considerable degree of business and political success. He was averse to display, and believed in "solid" things. He was a devout adherent of the Presbyterian church, in the faith of which he had been thoroughly trained. He died February 5, 1867. His wife was Miss Harriet Humrick- house, and he died without issue.
William K. Johnson was born in County Tyrone in Ire- land, and when only seven years of age was brought to America. The family, after a .brief stay in Baltimore, came to Pittsburg, where a brother of Mrs. Johnson (Rev. Dr. Kerr) was living. About 1820 Mrs. Johnson was mar- ried to James Renfrew, then doing business in Coshocton, and the Johnson children thus and then came to Coshocton. At first a clerk, and then a partner in the mercantile busi- ness, and afterward in banking and in real estate operations. William K. Johnson was for many years regarded as a representative business man of the county. Ile had the confidence of the whole community, and his name was a synonym for integrity, sobriety, diligent application to business, and great prudence. By all the sons of the Em- erald Isle, especially, he was looked to as a wise counselor. His approbation of any matter of town and county interest was regarded as quite important in order to its accomplish- ment. His views and actions have very largely shaped the social and business affairs of the region where for nearly forty years he lived and labored. He was for many years a member of the board of education and of the town coun- cil of Coshocton. Ile was postmaster for some fifteen
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years. He was connected with the Steubenville and In- diana railroad, as a director, from its organization until his death. IIe was one of the most regular attendants and spirited supporters of the Presbyterian Church. In the earlier years of its history, he superintended the Sabbath- school, and led the congregational singing. For a number of years he served the County Bible society as its treasurer and depository. While not uninterested in political affairs, he had little ambition in that line.
Ile married, in 1836, Miss Elizabeth Humrickhouse, who, with six children, survived him. His death occurred in comparatively early years, he being about fifty years old. He died Monday (having been in his place of business on Saturday), December 10, 1860.
Robert Hay was born in County Derry, Ireland, in Feb- ruary, 1801. He came to America in 1817, and was em- ployed in stores in Pittsburg for two years, and then came to Coshocton in the employ of James Renfrew. After a clerkship of a few years, he became a partner with Mr. Renfrew, and subsequently with William' Renfrew. For fifty years he was in business. He was in his store when taken with his last illness. No man ever stood higher in the community for truthfulness, honesty, promptitude, and careful application to business. Trained in the old school of merchants, he was a strict disciplinarian, and despised all trifling and trickery. He always was himself to be found at his business in business hours, and expected a conscientious devotion to his interest on the part of his employes, whom he always regarded with kindly interest. For the worthy poor he had always much sympathy, and was especially ready to help them to help themselves. He served the county for several years as county treasurer, but was never inclined to public station. In the regular pros- ecution of his business as a merchant and distiller, he steadily increased his worldly estate, and by the vast accre- tions in connection with the excise tax in the earlier part of the war, left at his death the largest estate ever admin- istered upon in Coshocton county.
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He married Miss Mary Corbin, of Granville, O., in 1858. She and one child preceded him to the grave, and two children survived him. He died, after a few days' illness, May 3, 1869, at the house of his brother James, which for some time he had made his home.
John Elliott, for many years commonly designated as " Deacon Elliott," belonged to a family of mark, all win- ning considerable fame, despite what would be accounted an unfavorable condition at the start. The family came from Ireland. The mother's piety seems to have been as strong a determining force in the children as the hard sense of the father. One of the sons, Samuel Elliott, was asso- ciate judge of the county ; another, Charles, became a very prominent minister in the M. E. Church. The deacon was thrown, in early life, into Presbyterian surroundings, and, though not favorably affected at first, after thorough study, adopted that form of Christian faith, and held to it through all his life with notable pertinacity. He united with the church under Rev. Elisha MeCurdy, of Western Pennsyl- vania. After learning thoroughly the carpenter's trade, he spent some time in erecting mission buildings-church, school-house, and dwellings-for the use of the Presbyte- rian missionaries among the Sandusky Indians. He was a citizen of Coshocton county about forty years. The first Presbyterian Church of Coshocton and the Methodist Epis- copal Church of same place, and some others in the coun- try, were built by him. About 1855 he went to Iowa, with the purpose of making that his home, but in a few years returned to Coshocton, and, after working a few years, ended his days in August, 1869. Strong sense and stead- fast piety were characteristics of the man. Indifferent as to personal appearance, and exceedingly blunt in expression, he compelled the respect and regard of all who became to any extent acquainted with him. He was one of the two first chosen elders of the Presbyterian Church of Coshoc- ton, and an almost never-failing attendant upon the church prayer-meetings, which he always found time to attend.
He married Miss Blythe, of Fayette county, Pa. She
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lived only a few years, and left one son (John B. Elliott), at whose home the old deacon died, September 2, 1868, being sixty-eight years old.
Dea. Taliafero Vickers was a leading citizen in Washing- ton township. He was born in Prince William's county, Virginia, on the 22d of September, 1789. He came to Coshocton county in 1827. Early in life, he identified himself with the Baptists, and he died in the Wakatomika Baptist Church on Sunday, February 19, 1863. He had gone to the church in his usual health, and his last utter- ance was an " amen " spoken while the minister was read- ing Rev. 1:18. A moment after, the attention of the con- gregation was drawn to him, and those going to him found him dead.
Win. Brown was for eighteen years, from 1822 to 1840, a merchant and general business man in West Carlisle, of which town he was one of the original proprietors. He was born in Franklin county, Pennsylvania ; spent a few years, before coming to Coshocton county, at St. Clairs- ville, Belmont county. His parents were from Germany, spelling their name Braun. His wife was Scotch-Irish. By the combination of the virtues of the two races, the Browns won for themselves great consideration in their neighborhood, and, though starting in their wedded life with very little, amassed quite a respectable fortune. Mr. Brown was for many years a justice of the peace and post- master under Monroe, J. Q. Adams, Jackson, and Van Buren, although he was a very decided Adams and Clay man. He was an excellent horseman, and skilled in the use of the rifle, and these things helped him greatly in the state of society found in his day in the region of West Carlisle. In public movements and proper sports, he was never lacking, and was often recognized as a leader, and made the object of a good deal of " backwoods homage."
And yet, with all his activity in business and interest in the social life of the people, Mr. Brown is represented as having been a very earnest and faithful man in his religious
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duties. Family worship was on no excuse intermitted ; the Sabbath was sacredly regarded ; and when, as before and after a communion in the church, there was preaching, the store was shut, although he loved business, and avowed his intention to give himself steadily to it, and to make money for his family. His house was the "minister's hold," and he was one of the most active members of the Presbyterian church from its organization, contributing largely of his means to it, and especially in the erection of the building still in use by the congregation.
In 1840, he removed to Logansport, Indiana, and there died March 4, 1859. His wife, inheriting a considerable estate from her father, gave it all to foreign missions. One of the sons, Wi. L. Brown, Acting Brigadier-General of the Indiana Infantry, was killed at the second battle of Bull Run. Three sons became Presbyterian ministers. J. C., who died while pastor at Valparaiso, Indiana ; Hugh A. was a missionary to China, and has been for many years pastor of a church in Virginia; and Frederick T. (the only child born in Coshocton county, and who even yet glories in being a Buckeye), who had charge of a church in Cleve- land, then of one in Alexandria, D. C., then was in St. Paul, Minn., and is now at Ann Arbor, Mich.
Alexander Renfrew came from Union county, Pennsyl- vania, where he was born August 18, 1801, to Coshocton county in 1826, and remained therein until his death on his farm in Keene township, February 13, 1872. He mar- ried Miss Carnahan in 1833, who, with three children, survives him. Starting in life with little, he, by a life of industry and frugality, amassed a very considerable estate. Public life had little attractions, and his record is that of a quiet citizen, a successful farmer, and a busy man, mani- festing the virtues of domestic and business life.
Eli Nichols was for forty years a well-known citizen of Coshocton county. He was for many years, ending with his death, the largest land-owner in the county, being in occupancy of the quarter township of New Castle, now
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held by his son, Lloyd Nichols. He came from Belmont county, Ohio.
His death occurred at his home, after an illness of only two days. His age was seventy-two years. His wife pre- ceded him to the grave but a few months.
His interest in education, and especially his attachment to the public-school system, was often avowed.
He was born and reared in the Quaker church, but in after years disavowed the religious principles of that body, and repudiated the Bible as an infallible book. In early manhood, he took an active part in the operations of the Colonization Society, but soon abandoned it, and hencefor- ward gloried in being an "Abolitionist."
His gentleness of nature made him patient amid whatever reproach he encountered in this, as in other lines of thought and action; and it is claimed for him that, whatever his antipathy to the system of slavery, and his sympathy with the oppressed, he was always wonderfully lenient toward the slave-holder.
In his later years, he became much interested in " Spirit- ualism," and much of his time in his declining years was given to study of this, and he became a full believer in it, continuing in this faith unto the last of earth.
Rev. Nathaniel Conklin was for many years a most zealous and successful minister of the Presbyterian Church in Coshocton county. He studied at Princeton, New Jersey ; preached for some ten years at Frankfort, Sussex county, in that state, and came to this county about 1834. He la- bored at Coshocton, Keene, Clark (where he organized the church), West Carlisle, and near Warsaw (where he organ- ized the church), in the days of the feebleness of all the churches in this region.
After leaving Coshocton county, about 1844, he labored for a time at Muskingum church, near Dresden. He then removed to Indiana, taking charge of the Covington church in that state. Broken by his missionary labor, he returned to his old home state, and, as he was able, supplied some churches there.
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He died in 1866. His wife died in 1837, and lies in the Keene churchyard; and a son, born while he labored at Keene, Rev. N. W. Conklin, is now pastor of a large and vigorous church in New York city.
G. W. Silliman was the son of a lawyer (Willys Silli- man) practicing at Zanesville, and a nephew of Lewis Cass. He pursued his academical studies at Ohio University, and afterward at the military academy at West Point. Having read law with his father in Zanesville, he was admitted, and soon thereafter came to Coshocton (about 1830). He was sent as bearer of dispatches to C. P. Van Ness, minister from the United States to Spain. He returned to Coshoc- ton in 1833; was soon elected prosecuting attorney, and by re-election continued in the office for ten years. In 1843, he went on a voyage to Europe for his health, but was not greatly benefited, and on his return voyage grew rapidly worse, and died at sea. His remains were brought to New York, and interred in Greenwood Cemetery.
In 1834, he married Miss Ann Johnson, who survived him many years, dying in 1864. There was one child, Willys Cass Silliman, who survived the father only about two years. Mr. Silliman's reputation is that of genial, scholarly gentleman.
Robert M. Lamb was from Eastern Virginia. He came to Coshocton, and was employed as miller in the Coshocton Steam Mill, about 1834; afterward, as one of the Union Mill Co., was concerned with the building and running of the Union Mill, in lower Roscoe. IIe went to California in 1849, and died of cholera in San Francisco the next year, in the forty-first year of his age.
He married a daughter of Dr. S. Lee, and by her had three children, two of whom, Mrs. J. M. Thompson and Miss Emily, are residents of Coshocton ; the third, Mrs. Barse, living at Michigan City, Indiana.
David Spangler was born at Sharpsburg, Md., December 24, 1796. In 1802, the family removed to Zanesville, Ohio
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Ilere the father established himself in trade as a black- smith, and David, as his age and strength admitted, was a helper, and continued at the forge and anvil for years, learn- ing lessons of patient toil, and endurance, and self-reliance of vast advantage in later years. Subsequently, the father engaged in mercantile business, and in this, as in the other, David, as the eldest son, was his chief assistant. Study, however, was not neglected, and David profited dil- igently by his opportunities in that line, limited as they were.
When twenty-five years of age, he commenced the study of law with Alex. Harper, and was admitted to prac- tice at a term of the Supreme Court of the State, held in Cleveland in 1824. He commenced practice in Zanesville. In 1830, he was nominated for representative for Muskin- gum county in the legislature, and polled far more than his (Whig) party vote, though not elected. In 1832 he came to Coshocton. Professional business poured upon him from the start, and beside he soon was taking a leading part in politics. In the fall of the same year in which he came into the county, he was nominated for representative from the Twelfth (then) Congressional District, and such was the esteem and popularity in which, as a lawyer riding the cir- cuit, that he was elected by a round majority, although the district (composed of Coshocton, Knox, Holmes, and Tus- carawas counties) had been hitherto in the hands of the opposite party. He was re-elected by the same constitu- eney in 1834, by a still more decisive vote. Mr. Spangler was thoroughly satisfied with the political experience thus had, and proclaimed his determination to give his whole attention thereafter to professional practice. In 1844, his party, then in the ascendancy in the state, nominated him, by convention assembled at Columbus, for Governor, but 'he declined the nomination, insisting upon his tastes for private life, and his need of attention to professional busi- ness, and the claims of his family, especially those of his two sons, then in course of education. While in Washing- ton city in his first term as congressman he was admitted to practice in the United States Supreme Court, arguing a
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case carried up from Ohio, and prevailing for his client. From 1836 to 1856, in which year he died (October 18), his office and home, his neighbors and friends, received the whole of his time and attention. For some years before his death his health was far from vigorous. He was, it will be observed, about two months less than sixty years old.
His parents were members of the M. E. church, as was also the lady whom he married (December, 1829), Miss Elizabeth Grafton Etherington, of Baltimore, Md., and he was always awake to the interests of that body and ex- ceedingly helpful to it, although never a member. In the heaviest of his business and height of his fame, he would give active aid in the Sabbath-school and in the musical department of the church.
He was initiated into the Masonic body about the time he attained his majority, and served in the capacity of Worshipful Master, Representative to Grand Lodge, of which he was S. G. Deacon, Grand Orator, and Deputy Grand Master. In 1846, the Lodge formerly established having become defunct, he, in connection with others, se- cured a dispensation for a new Lodge (No. 96), of which, for many years, he was W. M.
His sympathy and readiness to associate freely with the masses-his great industry and energy-and his keen in- sight of human nature and ready wit were qualities giving him his place and power in public life. And with this is our present , concern. He used to joke with his friends about his growth in popularity when a candidate, stating that in one township he doubled his vote-the fact subse- quently coming from him that the first time he ran he got in that township (a Democratie stronghold) one vote, and the second time tico. A young lady came to his office to have him commence proceedings for " rape." After hear- ing the story, he said it was important he should know the case, and informed her that there was an offense called " rape," and one called "rapee," and that the latter cov- ered the case of the mildest possible resistance. She con-
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cluded the latter was her case, as he keenly suspected from the first.
A minister of his church once undertook to deliver a learned controversial discourse, having very much to say about " the original." Coming out of church, he quietly ob- served to a prominent lawyer of the place, of another faith, " That was a remarkable discourse ; remarkable, sir ; re- markable, sir; and especially remarkable, because neither the preacher (as he knew) nor any of his hearers had any knowledge of that original language."
Peter Humrickhouse was only a few years a resident of Coshocton county, but as the paternal ancestor of one of the most prominent families of the county, may well find brief mention here. He was born in Germantown, Pa., August 26, 1783. His father soon after moved to Hagers- town, Md. After the manner of his time, he learned a trade, that of carriage-maker. In 1814, he removed to Brownsville, Pa. He came to Coshocton in 1834, and here died, August 23, 1839. He was the father of Thomas, and John, and Wm. Hnmrickhouse, and also of the wives of John Joseph K. and Wm. K. Johnson, of John G. Stew- art, and James Irvine, all being resident in Coshocton. Mrs. Kincaid, of Greenfield, Ohio, is also his daughter.
Arnold Medberry was born in New Berlin, Chenango county, New York, March 24, 1806. He came to Roscoe in the fall of 1832, and remained a citizen of that place until his death, August 12, 1861. During this time he was one of the most prominent business men of the region. Ilis farming, milling, merchandising, and connection with the public works, were features of the locality where car- ried on. Indomitable energy and ceaseless activity were his characteristics. He was undaunted before that which would have made many quail. He thought nothing of tak- ing his buggy, riding thirty miles to Mt. Vernon, and then taking the cars, thus reaching Cleveland in a few hours. Losing two flour-mills by fire, he within a few hours had amtters all arranged for building yet a third. A zealous
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politician, he yet had little desire for office. He was, how- ever, postmaster of Roscoe for many years, and was also county commissioner. When the public works of the state, with which from the first he had been thoroughly acquainted, were offered for lease, he was one of the princi- pal lessees, and continued in that relation until his death. A single anecdote illustrates his keen discernment and dis- position to have the best in every line attainable. A wagon-maker having built him a wagon, called for his in- spection and acceptance of it. He discovered, by close examination, a few places stopped up and made to appear smooth and good by putty. The wagon-maker protested that there was no real defect ; that in fact the parts where the putty was, were as strong as any, and would do just as good work. " Very good, then," said Medberry, with his accustomed twinkle of the eye, "just you keep this wagon, and make me another all out of putty, and we will then see whether putty is as strong as oak." Severe requirement was the rule with him in his relations to his employes, and what he thus demanded he was ready to yield to those having rightful claims.
His personal appearance was fine ; his manner calm and stately, but withal kind.
His wife, who had been Miss Phoebe Denman, survived him several years, dying at the home of her daughter in Kansas. His two sons died in each case as they were approaching manhood. Two of his daughters are living in Kansas, the other in Columbus.
Matthew Scott was born in county Donegal, Ireland, in 1795. He came to America in 1816, but lived at Cumberland, Maryland, until 1833, when he came to Coshocton county, settling in Virginia township, near Adam's mills. As the owner and cultivator of a consid- erable body of land ; as a man of diligence and integrity, of more than ordinary intelligence, and of fair education, Mr. Scott was long had in repute in the region where he dwelt. As an enthusiastic son of Erin, and a most earn- est and liberal adherent of the Presbyterian church, he was
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known by thousands. In 1856, he made a visit to the old land. He was for several years a director of the Western Theological Seminary at Pittsburg. He was a member of the general assembly of the Presbyterian church, meeting in l'eoria, Illinois, 1863. He was always a warm friend of the colored people, and was chiefly instrumental in es- tablishing a school for the education of colored girls, called " Scotia Seminary," in North Carolina. Having no children, and his wife having died before him, he gave almost his whole estate-of some $25,000-for educational, missionary, and other benevolent purposes, in connection with the Presbyterian church, a large part going to the support of the little church in which he had long been an elder, and in which his kindred hold yet a large place. For some time before his death, Mr. Scott had been in poor health. Early on the morning of the 13th of Sep- tember, 1872, the family of the brother with whom he had been staying for some days, were alarmed by his absence from the house and the appearance of his forsaken bed- room, and search having been made, his dead body was found, after some hours, in the Muskingum river, which flowed through his lands.
John Lockard died near Chili, September 20, 1868, in his eightieth year. He was a native of county Donegal, Ire- land; emigrated to America in 1819; settled near Steuben- ville, but after a few years removed to Coshocton county.
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Sharon Williams died at his residence in Keene township on the 19th of August, 1868. He emigrated from Virginia in 1812, and resided in the same vicinity until his death, being a period of fifty-six years.
Isaac Darling died at his residence in Jefferson township, March 26, 1869. He was born in Eastern Virginia in 1796, and emigrated with his parents to Ohio in 1806, settling at his manhood upon the place on which his early life was spent, and remaining there till his death. He was for many years a prominent member of the Jefferson Baptist church.
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